Today algoriddim GmbH removed all of their djay apps from iTunes, except for djay Pro. djay Pro had its iTunes ID change and is now called simply djay. They've also switched the remaining djay app to a subscription model of $5 per month, or $40 per year. I'm not sure what this means for the people who paid $20 for it when it was called djay Pro, or if they will even receive updates since the iTunes ID changed.

djay iTunes Description:

Ready to rock your next party? Introducing the all-new djay: now with live music production tools, Ableton Link, enhanced Spotify integration, Automix AI, music visualizers, and countless new features.

djay transforms your iOS device into a full-featured DJ and music production system. Seamlessly integrated with your music library and Spotify, djay gives you direct access to millions of songs. You can perform live, remix songs, or enable Automix mode to let djay create a seamless mix for you automatically. Whether you are a professional DJ or a beginner who just loves to play with music, djay offers you the most intuitive yet powerful DJ experience on an iPad or iPhone.

• Sequencer• Looper: remix your music with up to 48 loops per pack• Live Sequencer: create beats on top of your music in real-time• Beat-matched sequencing of drums and samples• Extensive content library with hundreds of audio loops, sounds, and FX.

With a djay Pro subscription, you get access to the full professional feature set including hardware integration, live music production tools, and a massive library of high quality audio samples, loops, effects, and visuals.

• Subscribe to get unlimited access to all PRO features, 1000+ loops, FX, sounds, and visuals• Monthly ($4.99) & yearly ($39.99)*• Free trial subscription is automatically renewed unless cancelled 24 hours before the renewal• Payment will be charged to iTunes Account at confirmation of purchase• Account will be charged for renewal within 24-hours prior to the end of the current period, at the same price• No cancellation of the current subscription is allowed during active subscription period

Reader Comments 17

Everyone should by default ignore software subscriptions. But “vote with your wallet” doesn’t actually work with some software markets that are dominated by one developer. Look at Adobe. Scum. The lot of them.

FWIW, if you already own the previous version of the app it's only 9.99 to upgrade for a year. And the cool thing about iOS subscriptions is that you could pay the 9.99 upgrade price and cancel tomorrow and use it merrily for the next year until their next update.

Screed incoming!Dysamoria: Although it is true that Adobe is a scummy company, they do have essentially a monopoly.. and under capitalism, you are obligated to leverage and exploit that. We like to believe that corps and businesses are beholden to the customer, but that’s just piss. They are beholden to investors.. Investors wallets is the first and last thought in ANY business decision. They already have you.. where are you gonna go? Corel? Paint Shop Pro 1990s style? What?

Don’t be angry at Adobe for playing the game of neoliberal capitalism perfectly. Be angry at the system that drives this kind of shit in the first place. No one was served by Adobe buying up Macromedia.. No one but the investors. No one was served by the subscription model aside from adobe and its investors.

When greed is the basis of the economic system, we, the customers, will always be ignored. All the corps play the same shitty games, and if they don’t, then their investors and the board gets pissed off and throws threats, so the business buckles AS IT IS SUPPOSED TO UNDER CAPITALISM and the customer once again gets shafted.

That’s why consumer protection agency and similar exist. That’s why the private sector lobbies to gut the consumer protection agencies around the world, because they «limit» what businesses can do. They seek to destroy the CPA so that they can screw you harder.

What do conservatives do? Cry about the shackles put on the private sector by the evil government, blindly opposing regulations because the people at FOX said all regulations are sinful...

And there it is. Adobe isn’t fucking you over. Our submissive nature and how we refuse to stand up for ourselves is what’s fucking us all. Capitalism makes us submissive and placid. It makes us place blame where it doesn’t make any sense (singular corps/businesses or the banks or muslims or whatever) while those who do the harm (lobbyists and their pet senators/governors/representatives) walk free and giggling with all your hard earned money. Well, I say all, you obviously pay corporate welfare with a large part of your salary, cause why not, right? Capitalism at its finest <3

not to start a flame war but i sort of like subscriptions. protools, creative suite, slate, composer cloud, ms office, etc are how i earn my living. so for, what, a couple of hundred quid a month (and i could probably get by with a lot less, it's tax deductible, etc), i have all the tools i need, all up to date until i stop needing them, and they throw in other stuff from time to time. same with waves update plan - for a couple of hundred quid a year, i probably get 4 or 5 free plugins added, and never have to shell out for an update. it allows me to manage my cashflow better, and that's clearly the advantage to the companies, too. i would totally pay for subscriptions for all the software i use a lot (NI Komplete, Izotope, Arturia, Spectrasonics) rather than forking out £300-£400 for each incremental upgrade once a year.

and, purely playing devil's advocate, the model for mobile apps is kind of broken (probably in large part because of apple). if algoriddim sell a bunch of apps at $10, once, and people expect updates for ever when apple stop supporting an OS or whatever, how does that work? it's not like there's an infinite growth in people who need DJ apps, and people get super grumpy if they have to pay for a "version 2".

$5 a month (an expensive cup of coffee) to get an app you use with all future updates included, doesn't seem like that much, and as many have correctly pointed out here, there are non-subscription alternatives for a lot of this stuff.

I'm personally glad to hear from anyone who represents the other side of an issue, so thanks for sharing!

My own problem with them is the way they are structured. You feel like a sucker if you're doing the monthly plan instead of the annual plan. "This app just costs $5 per month, no biggie." But now I've got to try to budget for these bigger annual hits on my card. I need a subscription for the software I use for coding, but that's another big annual fee. I need to think very long term and find a month I can safely take a surprise annual fee on in all of the years down the road.

All desktop software is going towards subscriptions. Even smaller companies are now using a subscription model. So no matter how much we all wail and gnash our teeth it is probably only a matter of time before we see the same here.

I completely agree re : the structures. I hate the fact that something like creative cloud is £20 for one app but £50 for all of them - if you use them all that’s a bargain of course, but if you only need photoshop and then illustrator or in design a couple of times a year it means you kind of have to pay full whack. But the counter argument is something like the slate plugins - £15 a month for some of the best sounding plugins out there, constantly updated and new stuff added all the time (verbsuite, distressor, Air eq all relatively recently) and no real deadweight in the whole package. And everyone I know who has them says “they’re great. It’s a bargain” and that is some amazing pr.

I mean, my background is in economics, so I get it - capitalists gonna capitalist, but I genuinely think they don’t understand how much it costs them in goodwill every time one of their users goes “ugh, really, I feel like I’m being chiselled” as compared to “ooh, that’s cool” and especially in an industry as unequal and shall we say, charitably, not known for its ethical purity, as the music business

Tried to update djay2 N vjay on the iPad today, an get a no longer available. So of course I come over here an search what’s up. Yep. Subscription based now. So much fo the $$ I’ve already spent on these apps. Ive been usin djay/djay2 onstage since it came out. So pissd they movin toward this structure. Time fo a new app I guess.